The BERC Group is an independent evaluation, research, and consulting firm focused on putting research into practice. Our mission is to skillfully gather, analyze, and use data to inform, inspire, and improve all learning organizations.

We have released some pretty significant updates to the Learning Walks module in STAR Online over the last couple of weeks. We realized that because only administrators had access to the Learning Walk functionality, the entire staff was not being given the opportunity to observe and reflect online. We've remedied that by adding two new types of learning walks that are open to all staff members.

We recently added a new district SMART Goal feature to our STAR Online platform. Now, the central office can create a SMART Goal that is automatically added to the SMART Goals of every school in the district. The central office can also view aggregate observation data. This allows them to be more directly involved in the Powerful Teaching and Learning program by viewing and sharing district-wide progress on alignment with Powerful Teaching and Learning while also reflecting on and sharing their own learning.

Before, if the central office wanted all their schools to implement the same SMART goal, each school would have to manually create the goal for their school. If the central office wanted to check the progress made on that SMART Goal, each school would then have to manually share the data back or the administrator would have to browse to the school.

This is another example of how we are continuing to develop and support teachers as they strive to improve instruction. For all the details, go read the full post on the STAR Online Blog.

Based on our research, classroom observations, and experience working with educators, we’ve developed support materials around Powerful Teaching and Learning. Our primary mission with these products is to give educators the tools they need to learn and implement Powerful Teaching and Learning. In other words, to allow you to put our research into your practice.

The Facilitator Guide Toolkit is a guidebook solution for learning, implementing, facilitating, and supporting Powerful Teaching and Learning in your classroom, school, or district. By the end of it, you will be facilitator of Powerful Teaching and Learning and capable of training others, just like we do.

Aloha! In our last Classroom Clips post we featured Tania Will, a kindergarten teacher at Kaunakakai Elementary School on the island of Moloka’I in Hawai’i. Today, we’re heading back to feature Malia Sakamoto and her first grade class. Thank you, Malia, for opening your classroom and sharing your learnings with us.